• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

Boosting what may be the strongest growth area of content for its new company, Versant Media is starting up a new live sports programming division -- USA Sports -- which will house sports content for all its networks.

This will include content from NASCAR, PGA Tour, Premier League, WWE, WNBA, Atlantic 10 Basketball, and other sports programming.

It will not include higher-profile NBA programming, which will continue to air on the NBA Television Network and streamer Peacock -- two platforms that will remain part of Comcast Corp.

Sports programming will regularly appear on USA Network, Golf Channel, and on the weekends, CNBC -- with some 10,000 hours of overall live sports and studio content.

Sports content will start up in 2026.

Media-buying executives and analysts continue to lean into the strength of live sports programming as a key piece of aging live, linear TV networks when it comes to viewership and advertising revenues.

Comcast Corp.'s spinoff of its cable TV networks, through Versant, will be completed in early 2026 according to the company.

Those networks include USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and Golf Channel as well as digital media platforms -- Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow, GolfPass, and SportsEngine.

As part of its spinoff, MSNBC -- one of Versant’s major prime-time viewing networks -- is undergoing a brand-name change to MS NOW, and will launch on November 15.